Scenario One: The Christ College Cambridge Choir is performing at your church. In the middle of a Parry Anthem the swell trumpet’s “B” decides to stick leading to a very peculiar melodic rendering.

Scenario Two: As the organist starts the postlude at a multi-baptismal service of important congregational members, the organ blower gives out, leading to a long, slow, sad wail.

These are just two events our organ has experienced lately. The time has come to contemplate what to do. It is the 11th hour for our organ, which is yearning for attention and poised to die. So we have begun the long journey of what to do with our ever-stalwart pipe organ. Here is a little bit of what has happened so far....

We have already done a lot of preliminary work. We first formed a committee to evaluate what the musical needs of the congregation were. How important is the organ to fulfilling our mission of worship and service? Do we need a pipe organ? Do we go digital? The answers to these first questions for us were: very, yes and NO! The committee, called by the vestry was composed of vestry members, choir members, the organist and several at-large members. The group includes a person or two really leaning towards digital or just letting the whole thing die — after all, there is the COST!

After reading through packets on how organs work, the difference in cost of pipe organs and digital organs, residual values of different kinds of organs, whether to change to a tracker organ, what a stop list is, etc., the committee grew significantly more confident in tackling these very big questions.

After several meetings the plan was thus: We are going to have a pipe organ; however, should we start all over? Should we rework what we have? The first question was the easiest for us to answer. No one wanted to start all over. There are some great bones to our 1928 Austin organ. Sure there are things that need to be adjusted and changed, but a lot of it is good. So we took that option off the table. Then we thought about getting a vintage organ and restoring it. The church had just completed a major renovation of the sanctuary. This being a landmark Upjohn church, wouldn’t a vintage Skinner be lovely? Everyone agreed it would, but our chances of finding one — impossible.

Well, not really. As luck would have it, we found one: an unaltered Skinner organ from 1928. A gem — lovingly cared for, prime vintage, a miracle. Trips to Pennsylvania by the organist and organ consultant, phone calls back and forth between members of the vestry and the congregation in Pennsylvania — it looked to be perfect. We found some leads for helping with the removal and restoration costs; it was all falling into place.

Finally, we engage an organ firm known for restoring Skinner Organs. They have time to start work immediately — it will be in for Christmas! They send a team of four to Pennsylvania, and for two solid days they and the organ consultant measure and scheme and measure and tweak and measure and measure and measure. They return to our church on Shrove Tuesday, and measure our church again. Can we push that wall out? Can we raise the roof here? Can we move the entrance to the sacristy? Move the entrance to the sacristy?!? Meanwhile the congregation has been prepped. “We will have an instrument of unparalleled quality, an instrument of significance in the works of E. M. Skinner, and best of all it has everything we want and it sounds spectacular.”

After Shrove Tuesday pancakes and sausages, I go and see how the team of experts is doing. They are smiling on the outside but I sense something is not right. They explain to me that after looking over the organ — though it is even more of a wonderful instrument than they originally thought — it won’t fit; it just won’t fit. Everyone is deflated by the news. All this excitement and all these hopes dashed. But, as we all came to realize, it was not in God’s plan for Christ Church Riverdale. Ours is a different path. Sadly we withdrew our offer to save St. Paul’s Skinner organ, and we have heard since that another church has been able to save the historic Skinner Organ of 1928. We envy them and wish them many wonderful and musical years with their organ, but for us we are still en-route.

Having answered question one and explored the possibility of restoring a vintage organ, God has led us back to question two. Having only two weeks ago called a new rector, we now begin with him the task of determining which firm and which plan of restoration will best serve our needs at Christ Church. We have done a lot of hard work, but there is much to do. It will take time and prayer. We may still be in process, but already we have learned much about ourselves and about the magical world of organs. Act III and the Finale are yet to be written; I will keep you updated as to our progress....

Darin Lewis is Director of Music at Christ Church Riverdale in the Bronx.

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